Engage Entertain and Grow your SMB IT Shop

Mark Sokol, Product MarketingConnectWise

connectwise.com

• Background:– How People Find Things Today

• The Lead to Sales Funnel• Social Media Recommendations

Agenda

• Have a pain

• Look at options

How People Find/Buy Things Today!

• Read reviews

• Ask peers and friends

How People Find/Buy Things Today!

• Read Blogs

• Review the products

How People Find/Buy Things Today!

• Make Decision and Buy!

How People Find/Buy Things Today!

90% of Consumers purchase from someone they can trust.

Majority of them were referred the product or business service by someone they trust.

Fun Fact

90%

The Lead FunnelDon’t know your

solutions existKnow about

IT based solutionsKnow about YOU!

(and other providers)

Commitment

Decision

Evaluation

Discovery

Engagement

Pre-Engagement

Product Research & Comparison• Demos• Product Specification• Testimonials

Pricing • 1:1 Meetings • Competitive Review• Long-tail, specific or Brand

search terms

Information Seeking• Whitepapers• Webinars• Broad keywords

(PPC)• Social Media

Leads High PriceNot ready to buy

Still Learning MoreMay Hear about

competitors

Ready to buyLooking at comfort level

With vendor

• Win/Loss 50 over 12 months• 20% said blog/comment influenced

decision

ConnectWise Experience

20%

How do you get people to find you and ultimately make the decision to

purchase your services?• Initially, we believe Social Media – Phase 1: Get Started– Phase 2: Become That Hub– Phase 3: Increase Presence– Phase 4: Even More

The Challenge Is

• Create a blog - see Hubspot/Wordpress– Use templates– Write 2 times a week, write ahead of time– 200-400 words

• Involve in LinkedIn Groups– Join 5, contribute don't sell– Ask your customers where

• Small PPC presence, understand terminology– Goal not get leads but learn ‘key words’

Phase 1: Getting Started

• Find Where Customers Are– Ask existing customers where they go for information

• Listen to conversations, take part – Contribute intelligently

• Be Fun and Friendly– Don’t sell

• Focus on your expertise, experience– Don’t fake it

• Focus on business• Your blog: OK blogging about different content• 200 to 400 words!

Keys to Blogging

• Use pictures, video• Include a Call To Action– If you want to learn more

about backup disaster recovery, read my ebook.

Additional Blogging Basics

• Adding content on blog/site– 2-3 new things week to maintain visitors– 2-3 a day to grow visitors

Fun Fact

• January 2012 – 40 million users represent Europe

• Highest industry concentration High Tech, Finance and Manufacturing

• Job functions Owners 11%, Sales 10%, Operations 8% - 39% are high level managers

• Your customers are there already

LinkedIn

Source: http://www.slideshare.net/rmlins/estatsticas-do-linkedin-no-brasil

• Used LinkedIn advertising• Generated 100 leads Q1-2012– Cost Per Lead - $55

• Determined ‘targeted’ groups based on leads– Follow-up is joining those groups and

contributing

ConnectWise Experience

• Paid not sustainable channel– Too much $

• But it Builds brand• Helps with SEO• Use Paid to Find What Prospects have interest in

Small PPC Presence

• Discover regions/cities most responses• Determine if ‘owner’ versus non-owner

messaging• Where are sales coming from in

organization• Hundreds of LinkedIn groups, where

should I be responding to blogs etc

Paid Social to Test Targets

Recommended Book 1:

• The Thank You Economy

• Gary Vaynerchuk– $4.0 million wine

store into $50 million business

– Video, blogging 2006

ConnectWise Experience: growMyITbusiness.com

Phase 2: Create that hub

Site offers: Research, Opinions, Multimedia, Expert

ContributorsDiscussion

Industry blogs reference you, news sources

cite you, events mention you

Users email links, discussion forums mention

you

LlinkedIn, Facebook,

Google+ likes and shares

Q&A References,

SEO

• Start with Resource Center– 3-4 Papers, videos or repurposed blogs – Use terms you have found (that people search

for) and develop blog posts

• Study SEO – Discover SEOMOZ.org (free information)

Create that hub

• Inbound Marketing• By Halligan, Shah

Recommended Book 2

• SEO for Dummies• By: Peter Kent

Recommended Book 2

• About 10% are mobile visits– Some stats show ‘restaurant’ @ 40% or higher!

• Prepare your website to be mobile friendly today

Fun Facts

• Set up Twitter, Facebook, google+– Initially tie accounts together– Tweet once a day, repost on fb and google+– Tweet only relevant topics, not that you just had a pint

just now

• Develop 'ebooks‘, white papers, info graphics– Create landing pages– Use them in your blog and tweets – Measure response

Phase 3: Increase Presence

• How can I have time to create e-books?– zerys.com writers– Elance.com graphic

• Partner with non-competing peers, smart students, your employees, repurpose industry articles (summarize link back)

Phase 3: continued

• Integrated marketing activities– Tweet, Blog, Email, Webinar, Newsletter, Seminar etc

• Email nurturing bring them back• Measure results

– At ConnectWise we put down a minimum of $ amount even on non 'paid' activities to give us some idea of payback

• Get Tools to manage

Phase 4: Even More

• Dashboards– Hootsuite

• Blogging– Hubspot– WordPress

• Notifications– Tweetdeck– Google Alerts

Tools

Inbound Marketing

The Thank You Economy

Recommended Books

SEO for Dummies

• 70% Referral based • 30% email, direct mail, events, website• Referrals in SMB is key to business growth,

why not take it to Social media, SpiceWorks did!

Small Business IT Marketing

Source: What’s Working in Small Business Marketing, 2012, Quantum Leap Marketing

Why Is ConnectWise Presenting Social?

Because we are more than the businessmanagement software that we provide

Help Desk, CRMRMM/MDMQuoting & Proposal

The Modern OfficeA free tool to help explain the concept to your employees and your clients

www.connectwise.com/OwnYourClients

Questions?

www.connectwise.com/OwnYourClients